Jihadi Rebels Abduct UN Observers Along Israeli Border

Today’s Top Stories

1. Nabil Shaath described to Maan News the PLO’s diplomatic offensive against Israel: On Sept. 15, the Palestinians will ask the UN Security Council to set a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.

If that request is denied, the PLO will take their case to the International Criminal Court to hold senior Israeli officials such as Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon accountable for Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza, which killed over 2,000 Palestinians . . .

A permanent unity government, with Hamas as a full partner, will then be formed in order to facilitate the reconstruction of the war-torn Gaza Strip, Shaath added.

2. A day after the Al-Qaida-affiliated Al Nusra Front seized control of the Syrian side of the Israeli border crossing at Quneitra, YNet cites an Arab media report that the jihadis abducted members of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). At the moment, we’re talking about “40 soldiers of Philippine origin.” According to Michael O’Toole, Irish monitors are hunkered down — and hopefully still safe.

Israel and the Palestinians

• Did Netanyahu and Abbas hold a secret meeting ahead of the Gaza ceasefire?

• Australians for Palestine are in hot water for misrepresenting a photo of dead Syrian children as Palestinians killed by Israel. The Australian (click via Google News) reports that this fauxtography occurred in an email to MPs. This is the very kind of “dead baby porn” Brendan O’Neill brilliantly denounced. Adding fuel to the fire, Australians for Palestine editor Sonja Karkar reneged on a promise to apologize.

Underneath the image of dead children, Australians for Palestine editor Sonja Karkar wrote that “some people may find the above photo disturbing and we hope it is”.

“It is not being shown gratuitously, but to bring home the true awfulness of what is happening in Gaza,” she wrote.

Marwan Barghouti

• Marwan Barghouti (known as the Palestinian Mandela in some circles), called on Fatah to ditch peace negotiations and reassert its leadership of “the resistance.” MEMRI translated his unMandela-like message published on a Palestinian website.

• Haaretz: SodaStream officials say they haven’t made a final decision to relocate their factory from the West Bank to the Negev, and that boycotts aren’t a factor in the decision making.

The possible closure of the West Bank plant, located in the industrial zone of Mishor Adumim, outside Jerusalem, is a result of expanded activity in a new plant in the Negev town of Lehavim.

Even if the Mishor Adumim plant remains open, SodaStream could still decide within the next two months to cut down its activity there.

• According to Arab reports picked up by the Times of Israel, an Israeli aerial drone went down in Iraq and “was quickly recovered by US personnel on the ground.” In recent days, Hamas and Iran claimed to have downed Israeli UAVs.

Commentary/Analysis

• Former AP correspondent Matti Friedman‘s stunning expose of how the foreign press in Israel operates brought back memories for Max Blankfeld of covering Israel after Yom Kippur War. Blankfeld reminisces about an ignorant Brazilian reporter who knew nothing about the country resorting to “cut and paste” journalism to suit his Marxist ideology. Disclosure: Max Blankfeld is a member of HonestReporting’s board of directors.

Iran’s latest statements demonstrate that it wants to remain relevant in the post-Operation Protective Edge era and prove to its proxies that it is still leads and supports their armed struggle against Israel.

• Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, took to the op-ed pages of the Daily Telegraph to weigh in on rising anti-Semitism.

It is sometimes claimed that the anti-Semitism card is played to stifle debate about the Middle East. I am entirely in favour of debate, but to be credible, it must be open, honest, contextualised and untainted by irrational hatred or misinformation. After all, debate on Israeli government policy is the most popular national sport in the vibrant democracy that is Israel. Why? Israelis love a good argument, but more importantly, many Israeli government decisions are life-and-death choices with existential consequences for the tiny Jewish state.

However, in expressing strong views about Israel some people do not realise the extent to which they draw upon myths, images, fears and expressions that have a long and ugly history. Others knowingly and deliberately draw upon such rhetoric and upon the history of vile persecution. How can anyone attempt to justify disgraceful placards the like of which we have seen in pro-Gaza demonstrations in London proclaiming “Hitler should have finished the job”, or “Death to the Jews”?

Many foreign journalists who came to cover the war in the Gaza Strip were under the false impression that it was all about improving the living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by opening border crossings and building an airport and seaport. These journalists really believed that once the demands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad are accepted, this would pave the way for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Yet these journalists, like many others in the international community, failed to look at the bigger picture or take into consideration the context of conflict. Moreover, most of them did not even seem to be listening to what Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been stating before and after the war — that their real goal is to “liberate all Palestine.”

Operation Protective Edge may have ended, but the dream to destroy Israel is still alive.

Rest O’ the Roundup

The Islamic State runs a self-sustaining economy across territory it controls in Syria and Iraq, pirating oil while exacting tribute from a population of at least eight million, Arab and Western officials said, making it one of the world’s richest terror groups and an unprecedented threat . . .

For Western and Arab nations that are striving to stop Islamic State, the group’s local funding sources pose a conundrum: A clampdown on economic activity that helps fund the group, counterterrorism officials and experts said, could cause a humanitarian crisis in the already stressed areas it controls.

Jews of the Earth. It is the time, in The Creation of God, to take “Being The Chosen People of God” seriously, or get off the privy-pot.
A Jew is not one outwardly, because he was born of Jewish parents, or because he was circumsized the 8th day. No!
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in The Spirit, and not in the “Letter of the law. Whose praise is not of men, but of The Almighty God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob Israel. God will save all Israel. But not all Israel are True Jews. They say they are a Jew, but they are not. You will know them by their fruits.

U have take face value what Iran saying. They mean it what they said. Nobody should ignore it. It’s like when Hitler said he wants to eliminate the Jews from Europe. The Jews was thinking oh no. Why would he? He just talking. Was He????

Those who keep supporting the UNWRA are not different from the supporters of the Gaza fanatics. They are the reason why IL cannot achieve a permanent defeat of the Gaza fanatics.Their antisemitism is overwhelming.